Importing articles from Freshdesk
If your help articles already live in Freshdesk, import them rather than rewriting them. Imported articles arrive as curated content, the highest trust tier.
What you need
- Your Freshdesk domain — the part before
.freshdesk.com. If you log in atacme.freshdesk.com, your domain isacme. - Your API key.
Finding your API key
- Log in to Freshdesk and click your profile icon (top right).
- Choose Profile settings.
- Your API key is shown in the right-hand panel. Click to reveal and copy it.
Your API key carries your own permissions, so import what your account can see.
Run the import
- In HelpShelf, go to Content and click Import.
- Choose Freshdesk.
- Enter your domain and API key, then connect.
- HelpShelf validates the credentials and fetches your full content tree — categories, folders, and articles.
- Select the categories or individual articles you want.
- Start the import. Progress streams as articles come across.
What gets imported
- Freshdesk folders become HelpShelf collections.
- Freshdesk articles become HelpShelf articles, tagged as curated.
- Only published articles are imported. Drafts are skipped.
Article HTML is cleaned on the way in — inline styles, scripts, and tracking attributes are stripped, while code blocks, tables, and images are preserved.
Embeddings are generated automatically, so imported articles are semantically searchable without further action.
Re-importing
Running the import again updates articles you've already imported rather than duplicating them — they're matched on their Freshdesk article ID. New articles are added; articles you've since deleted in Freshdesk are left alone in HelpShelf.
If you've edited an imported article inside HelpShelf, a re-import will overwrite the source body. Prefer editing in Freshdesk if you plan to re-import regularly.
Freshdesk chat is separate
This imports content. If you also want visitors to reach your Freshchat widget from HelpShelf, that's a different setup — see Connecting live chat.